Cook blasts Blair over Iraq 'deceit'

FORMER Foreign Secretary Robin Cook challenged Tony Blair to admit he was wrong about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Mr Cook said it was undignified for the Prime Minister to continue to defend the reasons he gave for war.

FORMER Foreign Secretary Robin Cook today challenged Tony Blair to admit he was wrong about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Cook said it was undignified for the Prime Minister to continue to defend the reasons he gave for a war to oust Saddam Hussein.

His attack follows criticism of Mr Blair from another former Cabinet minister, Clare Short, who accused him of "deceit" and Labour MP Diane Abbott, who said he had made loyal MPs feel like "pillocks" over the war.

Mr Blair has also been criticised by the Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who said he would be "called to account" for his decision to take Britain to war.

Mr Cook was responding to claims by the man in charge of Iraq's ruling body, American Paul Bremer, that Mr Blair's comment that there was massive evidence of hidden weapons laboratories in Iraq was a red herring.

Threat

Mr Cook, who quit his government job over the Iraq war, said the Prime Minister had taken innocuous remarks by the team searching for Iraqi weapons and turned it into evidence that Saddam was a threat.

"Everybody in Britain can now see Saddam was not a real and present threat to Britain," said Mr Cook. "He did not have weapons of mass destruction and did not pose a threat to Britain or our interests and it's time the Prime Minister accepted that himself.

"It is undignified for the Prime Minister to continue to insist he was right when everybody can see he was wrong."

Mr Cook said the government, and Mr Blair in particular, had to come clean and admit they had been wrong.

"He needs to do it for his own good because his credibility is always going to be undermined if he persists in insisting he was right, when everybody now can see he was wrong.

"Even the Americans won't back him up," said the former Cabinet minister.

Mr Cook also commented on reports over the weekend that MI6 had put about claims that Saddam Hussein was a military threat in recent years.

He urged people not to blame the security services because they had given the government information with health warnings, but these had been stripped away and the information used for propaganda.